Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Short Essay 1 Chen Yijie (1155225510)

 

The Application of AI Tools in the Media Industry


On October 22nd, we attended a lecture led by a team leader from Edelman HK, who provided an in-depth introduction to the development and use of generative AI.

He demonstrated how AI can generate videos based on text descriptions, noting that while AI-generated videos a year ago were filled with distortions in shapes and spaces, making them easily recognizable as artificial, the current generation of videos not only meets user content demands but also significantly improves in terms of detail and camera logic, making them much harder to distinguish from real content.

The speaker mentioned an objective observation: users tend to overestimate the impact of new technologies in the short term but underestimate their long-term influence. I completely agree. When ChatGPT first emerged in 2022, numerous media outlets claimed that it would herald the Fourth Industrial Revolution, predicting that AI would soon become indispensable to our lives. These articles clearly overestimated the speed of generative AI’s development. However, as more than a year has passed, many ordinary internet users feel that generative AI has not significantly impacted their daily lives. Yet, AI has already taken root in various professional fields and even changed the operational methods of certain industries, with most ordinary users underestimating its influence.

When discussing AI usage techniques, the speaker emphasized that it is crucial to provide AI with personal information and background so that the AI can generate responses aligned with user input. The more detailed the question, the higher the quality of the AI’s response. Conversely, shorter and more general questions lead to less specific answers. This provided me with valuable insights for using generative AI more effectively.

He also introduced us to the transformative updates generative AI tools have brought to traditional media production tools, such as Adobe Firefly embedded in Adobe Photoshop. This tool allows users to select specific areas of an image and replace them with AI-generated content that blends seamlessly into the original background. I have tried this feature in Photoshop, though Adobe later imposed regional restrictions on its usage.

Regarding the application of generative AI in the media industry, I have the following insights:

Automation of Content Creation

Content creation is the most critical phase of content production. In advertising, generative AI can now produce high-quality promotional images, posters, and even video content that resemble real-life footage, replacing the need for companies to hire actors for advertisements. Moreover, AI-generated materials help avoid copyright issues when using certain assets.

AI’s data processing capabilities excel in tasks requiring large amounts of data, simple logical connections, and high accuracy, making it suitable for generating structured reports. Currently, AI writing is particularly effective for producing standardized, template-based, and repetitive content, such as financial news, sports updates, and weather forecasts, primarily in the form of brief news reports and financial statements. Additionally, AI writing greatly increases the speed and volume of content production while continuously reducing production costs.

Some platforms are transitioning their content production models from PGC (Professional Generated Content) and UGC (User Generated Content) to AGC (Automatic Generated Content).

Intelligent Content Distribution

AI’s breakthroughs in algorithms lie in its ability to continually improve recommendation systems, balancing broad relevance with individual user preferences. AI can gather and analyze user behavior, interests, and location on media platforms, building and refining user profiles to provide precise, intelligent content recommendations. Compared to manual content distribution, AI offers two key advantages: a vastly expanded distribution range and the ability to analyze behavioral data to discover potentially relevant content beyond users’ primary interests.

Efficient Content Moderation

In the digital era, manually reviewing the vast amount of content and data produced online is time-consuming and labor-intensive, while AI holds significant advantages in this area. AI can review video content by using algorithms and other technologies to analyze and evaluate the type, elements, and keywords of videos, ensuring compliance with content regulations. AI technology can also monitor copyright issues by conducting data mining, image recognition, and data comparison to track content distribution across platforms and detect unauthorized reproductions and modifications. It can quickly identify infringements such as unauthorized reprints, plagiarism, and content theft, generating real-time copyright monitoring reports. In fact, many video platforms have already implemented AI for content moderation. For instance, Bilibili initially relied on manual video review, which could take up to four hours during periods of high submission volumes due to limited human resources. However, after adopting AI-based review systems, the number of required reviewers dropped significantly, and the review time was reduced to under one minute, greatly improving efficiency.

In conclusion, AI has undoubtedly opened up vast new opportunities for the media industry. As we look to the future, AI is certain to occupy a central role in the media landscape and may even become increasingly dominant.

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